When Calls the Heart is a Canadian-American television drama series,inspired by Janette Okes book of the same name from her Canadian West Series,When Calls The Heart Year Four DVD and developed by Michael Landon Jr. The series began airing on the Hallmark Channel in the United States on January 11,2014,and on April 16,2014 on Super Channel in Canada.The series originally debuted as a two-hour television movie pilot in October 2013, starring Maggie Grace as young teacher Elizabeth Thatcher and Stephen Amell as North West Mounted Police officer Wynn Delaney.In the television series Erin Krakow is cast as her niece, whose name is also Elizabeth Thatcher played by Poppy Drayton in the movie, and Daniel Lissing plays a Mountie named Jack Thornton,When Calls The Heart Year Four with Lori Loughlin reprising her role as coal mine widow Abigail Stanton.On April 24, 2017, Krakow announced via the Hallmark Channel website that the show would return for a fifth season in February 2018.The season will premiere with a 2-hour Christmas special, to be broadcast as part of Hallmark's Countdown to Christmas season, and continue for a 10-episode season, beginning in February 2018.